Joining sleeve



June 24, 1952 J, L, WILBURN 2,601,351

JOINING SLEEVE Filed June 11, 1948 2 SHEETS--SHEET l Snventor fa/f/vMmm/V (Ittomeg J. L. WILBURN JOINING SLEEVE 2 SHEETS--SHEET 2 Inr MJUIrrlrllllt Mum.

nventor Filed June 1l, 1948 Patented June 24, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENTOFFICE JOINING SLEEVE John L. Wilburn, Texarkana, Tex. Application June11, 1948, Serial N o. 32,378 (c1. 287-108) 1 Claim.

My invention relates to sleeve members for joining sections of rod ortubing but more especially for joining shing rod sections together.

The joining sleeve that I have invented will take the place of theferrule members (male and female members) employed in the prior artteaching for joining sections of fishing rods together.

The objection to the prior art type of joining means is that they mustbe made to t together in such a precise manner that whenever any dirt,corrosion or other foreign matter accumulates on the joining surfaces ofthe members of the pair it becomes impossible to join the two togetheror if joined together they stick so tight that they can not be separatedwithout a great deal of effort.

An object of my invention is to provide a single sleeve member whichwill not be permanently attached to any end portion of a fishing rodsection but may be used to join the ends of fishing rods.

Another object of my invention is to provide a joining sleeve for use injoining sections of shing rods together or other rods and one that willexpand to accommodate the ends of the rods joined together by it in amanner to firmly hold the ends of the fishing rod or other rods togetherbut hold them in a manner that they may be easily disconnected from oneanother.

Another object of my invention is to provide a shing pole joining sleevewith viewing slots to facilitate accurate alignment of the ends of shingpole sections joined by the saine in order that the pole sections may bealigned in straight fashion and bring into alignment the eyelets on thesections of the fishing pole.

lOther objects and advantages lof my invention will appear in the courseof my detailed description of my accompanying drawings illustratingforms of expandable sleeves which embody my invention.

In the drawings, Fig. 1 is an assembly View of a shing pole shown joinedtogether by an expandable sleeve which embodies my invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged elevational view of the sleeve with the ends ofthe sections of the fishing pole shown removed from the sleeve.

Fig. 3 is an elevational enlarged view of the sleeve with the sectionsof the together by the same.

Fig. 4 is a cross sectional view of Fig. 3 taken on line 4 4.

Fig. 5 is a cross sectional view of Fig. 3 taken on line 55-5.

shing pole joined Fig. -6 is a diagrammatical view of my joining sleevewith sections of a fishing pole pushed into the same.

Fig. 7 is an elevational view of a modified form of joining sleeveembodying my invention.

Fig. 8 is a plan view of another modied form of joining sleeve embodyingmy invention and Fig. 9 is a cross sectional view of the joining sleeveillustrated by Fig. 8 taken on line 9 9 of the same.

In the drawings Fig. l illustrates a conventional form of shing rodwhich is made up of a handle section I 0 and a tip section II, both ofwhich sections are provided with conventional eyelets E through which afishing line, not shown, may be strung.

The handle section I0 is provided with a grip G which includes aconventional fitting for receiving a reel, not shown, on which the linemay be wound. Both the handle section I0 of the fishing rod and the tipsection I I have their joining endsI reinforced by cork plugs I 3.

Note also that these joining ends of the handle section I0 and tipsection Il are cut slant-wise. They are cut this way so that they can beaccurately matched within the ferrule to facilitate their correctalignment to the end that the completely assembled fishing pole isexactly straight. This feature is very important in the manufacture ofbamboo cane shing poles. A

An additional reason for matching the ends of handle section I Il andtip section II is to correctly align the eyelets E on the handle sectionI0 in alignment with eyelets E on the tip section II.

The sleeve I2 is provided with a bore which is adapted to receive theprepared joining ends of section I0 and section II of the shing pole ina manner to snugly fit the same when the sleeve I2 is slightly expanded.The sleeve I2 is provided with opening slots I4 and I5 which serve asviewing slots through which the joined ends of the handle section I0 andtip section II may be viewed. The slots I4 and. I 5 open in receivingthe joining ends of the handle section I6 and tip section II.

The end portions between joints of sections of a bamboo fishing rod arenaturally tapered. This oiers no disadvantage in the use of my inventionin a joining sleeve for the reason that the slots I4 and I 5 enable thesleeve to be expanded at its ends in a cone shaped fashion toaccommodate the tapered joining ends of sections of a bamboo pole.

The diagrammatic view of Fig. 6 shows this `joining endswill 4show up,

feature even more clearly and shows also that the circumference of thesleeve I2 even at its central medial portion may be expanded.

If the joining ends of the handle section I and tip section II happen tobe slightly oversized, they can still be forced together in the properjoining position in contact with one another because the circumferentialjoining section I6 will m'ove under sufficient pressure from its normalhorizontal position, shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 6, to a spiralposition, shown by the solid lines of Fig. 6. Thus it may be said thateither or both ends of my joining sleeve I2 are' adapted to expand toreceive end portions of the fishing pole and that it is also adapted toexpand in its medial portion oircumfer'entiallyto permit the ends of thesections of the fishing pole to be brought into contact with oneanother.

Due to the factthat my joining sleeve I2 will expand in the mannerdescribed above, a single size of the joining sleeve is useful injoining ends of pole sections within a small range of sizes. It alsotakes care of ,smallirregularities on the joining ends of the polesections.

Figure 4 shows precisely how the handle section I0 and tip section II ofthe fishing pole should be brought ,together in matching fashion.

If the joining ends are not in perfect aligning contact with one anothera crack between the at least through one of the slots. I4 or I5, T heperson joining the ends of the pole, .upon seeing the crack, revolvesone of the pole sections with respect to the other While forcing the twotogether until the crack disappears into a linewhich line will be seenthrough both the slots I4 and I5.

Due to the fact that the joining ends are matched on aplane at an angleless than 90 with respectto the longitudinal axis of the assembledfishing pole, there can be but one proper joining plane in which thejoining ends of section I0 and section Il can contact one another.

My joining sleeve I2 should preferably be made out of some typeofvnon-corrosive metal or plastic material. .Iv have found thatv a sectionof aluminum tubing of an outside diameter of three-fourths (3A). of aninch having a wall thickness of approximately vone-sixty fourth (M54) ofan inch, and ofV a length of approximately four and one-half (4l/2)inches is an admirable pieceof st'ock'outV of which to fashion thes1ee`ve'I2 for joining 'sections'of a bamboo fishing pole.

I have found that in a joining sleeve' made out of the size pieceoffstock described above the slots I4 and I5 performed their properfunction when overlapped about a'half aninch with one another. The"medialV joining section I6 was approximately one-fourth (1/4) of aninch Wide. The degree of overlap of the slots I4 and I5 and the width ofthe circumferential medial section I6 may be varied to meetmanufacturing conditions. It is obvious that the thicker the wall of thetube stock is the narrower the medial joining section I6 should bebecause when the sleeve I2 expands atits center this medial section I6must be bent out of its normally'longitudinal position into theangular'position, shown in Fig. 6 of the drawing. The` crossysectonalarea of the section I6 is one of the determining factors governing themagnitude of the moment of inertia of the section which moment oflinertia is the true measure of the sections resistance to bending.

The slots I4 and I5 should be made wide Y at its ends in ared portions3l.

be undersize.

be sprung back into line enough to permit the end of the joining sleeve?I2 to be restricted so that the joining sleeve might also be used tojoin together sections of a rod, the joined ends of which are slightlyundersized.

In the modified form of the sleeve illustrated by Fig. '7 of thedrawing, the sleeve is designated generally by numeral 20. The spiralslots 2| originate from holes 22vbored through opposite sides of thesleeve 20. This spiral formation of the slots produces the tabformations 23 which are very useful, especially where the ends ofsections of poles to be joined together happen to For example, to insurea tight t on the ends of the joined sections of a fishing pole, 'thetabs are bent inwardly to the dotted line position shown in Fig. 7. Evenif the outside diameter of the ends of the pole sections inserted in thesleeve 20 is slightly less than the inside diameter of the sleeve 20,the inwardly bent tab 23 will grip the pole sufficiently to insure asnug t in the sleeve 20. V

In the modified form of joining sleeve illustrated by Fig. 8 and Fig. 9of the drawing, numeral 30 designates the sleeve generally.

This form of the joining sleeve 30 terminates The slots 32 originate inmedial positioned origin bores 33 which are positioned offset relativeto the'longitudinal centerline of the slots. The slots 32 are cut inoverlapping positions as to length through opposite sides of the sleeve30.

The slots 32 terminate in flared portions 3l in terminating bores 34,each of which is formed offset to the center line of the slot 32 and onthe same side as the companion origin bore 33. The position of the slots32 and the pairs of bores, the origin bores 3 3 and the terminating bore34, form projections in the side wall of the sleeve which are calledtabs 35.

The tabs 35 are adapted to be bent inwardly of the sleeve 36in themanner indicated by the dotted lines shown in wFig. 9 of the drawings.When the tabs 35 are bentinwardly to reduce. in a yielding manner,theinside diameter of the sleeve 30 they makeythe same4 grip the joiningends ofthe underside sections of a pole I0.

It is further pointedrout that in the case of full size pole sectionsthe inwardly bent tabs 35 exert extra pressure on the'joined ends of thesections of a pole II). This is true because tabs 35 must with the mainwall surface of the 'sleeve 3,0 before the slots 32 are spread toaccommodate the `joined ends of sections of pole I0. y

Since the sleeve 30 will exert pressure on the joining vends of pole I0,merely by the yielding of the sleeve accommodated by the spreading ofthe slots, the tabs '35 do not have to be bent inwardly when thesleeveis used in joining pole sections properly sized to fit into thesleeve.

'Ihe flared portions 3I serve as guides for introducing the joining endsof sections of pole I0 into the main body portion of thesleeve 30.

While I have illustrated my invention in a joining sleevejoiningV'together a Ysingle pair of cane pole sections, several of the sleevesmight be usedin joining more than two sections of a cane pole togetheror be used for any other. purpose where the joining together of rodsections or tube sections is desired.

Having thus described my invention, `I claim: A sleevefor joining theends of rods compris- Ving a tubular'member'having a p'air'ofslotstherein, said slots commencing in amedial position of said tubularmember and extending from their points of origin through opposite endsof said tubular member in spiral curves and rod members fitting in theopposite ends of said sleeve, the outer ends of said spiral curve slotsterminating in inwardly bent tabs tending to 5 grip the ends of said rodmembers.

JOHN L. WILBURN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the 10 le ofthis patent:

6 UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Number Name Date Light Sept. 8, 1874Albee et al. May 10, 1887 Tuttle Sept. 11, 1923 Saurman et al. July 8,1930 Risk Jan. 2, 1945 Bach et al. Dec. 21, 1948 FOREIGN PATENTS CountryDate Italy Mar. 9, 1939

